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Active versus inactive email contacts

Article: 000005327
Updated: March 26, 2025

Understand the difference between the active email contacts that affect your billing and the inactive contacts that don't

Pricing for your Constant Contact account is based on both the plan you select and the number of active email contacts you have in your account.

The billing for SMS marketing is based on the number of SMS messages you send per month and not on the number of SMS contacts you have, and therefore SMS-only contacts are not counted as active contacts. However, contacts with both an email address and an SMS phone number are considered active contacts because of their email address. If an SMS-only contact later opts into email marketing, they're considered an active contact going forward.

 

Light Bulb IconDid you know? The pricing information for our Lite, Standard, and Premium plans can be found here, or check out the Plans & pricing page in your account to compare the pricing to your current plan and contact tier.

 


Active contacts

Active contacts are contacts who you can send campaigns to and count towards your billing. Some examples of these contacts are:

  • Contacts who have an email address on file and who have given you permission to email them. This includes contacts that have both an email address and an SMS phone number on file.
  • Contacts who have unsubscribed but then resubscribed to your list through one of our sign-up tools.
  • Contacts who have bounced, such as non-existent, undeliverable, or suspended contacts, who have not yet been removed from your account.

 

Light Bulb IconDid you know? Keeping a clean contact list can help improve your email performance! Your reporting tells you which active contacts are recommended for removal.

 

Inactive contacts

Inactive contacts are contacts who you can't send campaigns to and don't count towards your billing. Some examples of these contacts are:

You can view all of your inactive contacts by their status and easily remove them with a few clicks.

 

Light Bulb IconDid you know? Removing inactive contacts doesn't affect your list negatively and doesn't change your reporting. If you delete a contact, they can always re-join your list through any of our sign-up tools to become an active contact again.


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